The Reversal
by myInfirmary
Summary: In this fic, the roles of Katrina and Abbie are totally reversed. Ichabod remains the guy that was killed by the Horseman of Death, and pretty much stays the same, just different. Abbie and Ichabod pairing of course.


He knows he's suffocating, because he's suffocated before. Many times in his sleep, he's woken up to the feeling of suffocating. Before that started happening, he used to feel like he was suffocating each time they had to go out to face their enemies in battle. Eventually he got used to going out to battle, and the suffocating feeling didn't plague him anymore, but it didn't leave him in his sleep. He couldn't control what his body did during sleep.

He hasn't suffocated in his sleep, not in the eight months since meeting her, because when he closed his eyes for sleep, she was the last image in his head. But now, somehow, he is suffocating. The memory of how suffocating is like comes back to him. No air reaching his lungs, his nostrils blocked and a weight so heavy on his chest that no matter how much he moves, he can't get rid of it. He tries to inhale through his mouth, but can only taste earth. And when he feels around with his arms and hands, he realises that he's in a very enclosed space, trapped even. Suddenly, he just knows that he's dying. The last thing he remembers is being slashed open in the chest by a soldier with pale eyes and a red uniform...

The moments after that come to him in bits and pieces...

Himself in a tent...someone shouting desperately...another person barking orders...his eyes closing...someone near him telling another to get a nurse...where is Grace? someone (he thinks it's Abraham) asks...his heart picking up when he hears the name Grace...and then nothing.

He must've lost consciousness, and now that he's regained consciousness, he's dying.

No, he decides fiercely, he isn't dying, he will not die.

Thrusting his hands upwards with all the might he has, he starts to hit against whatever has him enclosed in. He hits frantically, and the covering begins to break away, crumbling onto his body. He continues to hit against the closing until he feels a breath of fresher air hitting against his face. He wipes away the earth on his face. The actions that follow are completely inborn and reflex, his will has nothing to do with them. He pushes and gropes, bringing himself up in a matter of seconds. More air meets him, and he welcomes it, because it means he isn't dying, not anymore. He stumbles at first when he takes his first steps, but he gains his strength in knowing that he isn't dying.

The day keeps getting stranger. First he woke up in a cave, with no one around him, and then he was arrested, accused of the murder of a man he's never heard of in his life. They strapped him to a chair with cords and strings that he couldn't remove, and they wouldn't believe a word he told them, and now they have him detained. Worst of all, they told him he's in the twenty first century, a very long way away from what he knows.

'Mr. Crane?' a female enters the area he's detained in, 'I'm Lieutenant Katrina van Tassel.'

Despite his confusion and great dislike for everyone in this present time, he can't help being curiously impressed. A female law official, that is something indeed. She's also pretty, that is another thing too.

'A female Lieutenant,' he gives a small mirthless laugh, 'In whose army?' She flashes a small lovely smile his way and just like that, he feels inside him that he can trust her. At least she doesn't present to be like the men who'd strapped him to a chair and demanded that he tell them about his life. He told them the truth, all they wanted to know, because he's an honest man. But he left out one thing. That piece of information, he won't share with anyone, much less in this unfamiliar place.

She ignores his remark, choosing instead to get straight to her purpose, 'Mr. Crane, you have to come with me.' Even if he weren't shackled up, he would still obey her, because her voice is inviting and soft, full of womanly compassion. Her voice reminds him of soft lovely afternoons spent in the company of his beloved. All of a sudden, his heart is weighty, not only bearing the strangeness of the new Sleepy Hollow, but the unknown whereabouts (to him) of the woman he loves. He hasn't asked about her and he can't either, it's all the more burdening that he has no way of getting information about her.

He allows that the woman holds his arm as they leave the holding cells, out of the building to the...he's not sure what it is exactly, just that he's supposed to get inside it. The way she's holding one of its parts open tells him that.

'I'll just tell you this right now so you won't be surprised,' she tells him, 'I'm taking you to a mental institution.'

'A mental institution?' he can't believe that is what he heard, 'Whatever for?'

'They all think you're crazy and making everything up.'

He's always been good at reading people, even now he can read that what the Lieutenant is telling him is true, he can also read that she doesn't agree with them. Not one bit.

'But you don't.' He's not asking her, he's stating.

'I think,' she begins, stepping a little into him, 'I think that you're afraid and confused. But I also think that there's something you're hiding.'

'And I think,' he says, 'you know more than you're telling.' The tiny change on her face tells him that he's right, but she recovers quickly.

'Get in the car Mr. Crane.'


End file.
